Marburg v. Safe Deposit & Trust Co.

¹⁶⁶ Sloan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Albert Marburg, now deceased, on November 9th, 1920, executed a deed of trust to the Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Baltimore, for the benefit of many relatives of himself and his wife, amongst them one for his sister, Miss Emma Marburg, which provided for her as follows: “If my sister, Emma Marburg survives me, to hold the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) in trust to pay the net income therefrom to her during her life, with power to the said Trustee to pay her from time to time such portion or portions of the principal as it may, in its discretion, deem beneficial to her; and upon her death to pay over, transfer and deliver the said fund, or such portion thereof, as it may not have paid to her, to such persons or for such objects as she may appoint by her last will and testament; and should she fail to so appoint, then said fund, or such portion thereof as may not have been paid to her, shall form part of the residue of the trust estate and be disposed of as herein below provided.” Miss Marburg had made several demands on the trustee for the payment of the principal, all of which were refused, whereupon, in 1937, when she was seventy-seven years of age, she filed a bill of complaint against the trustee, wherein she stated that her personal needs and comfort had always been amply provided for, and she “* * * engaged in such activities as were fitting to a person in her station in life; that she has had and does derive as her pleasure and chief occupation the assistance of persons, who in the opinion of * * * petitioner are deserving and that her expenditures have been mainly for this purpose; * * * that * * * petitioner has invested her funds in Life Insurance Annuities in large standard Companies, the income from which while sufficient and adequate for her personal needs is not sufficient to enable her to carry on work in which she is interested, and which affords her her only interest and pleasure in life”; that what she wants to do is to invest the principal of the said trust fund in another life insur ¹⁶⁷ anee annuity “* * * which would guarantee her additional income, and be of benefit to her during her lifetime, rather than limit her to the disposition of same by her last will and testament,” and prays a decree directing the trustee to pay over to the petitioner the principal of the trust fund. The defendant, trustee, both answered and demurred, but the case was heard and decided on its merits, so that there is no need to discuss the sufficiency of the bill of complaint. From a decree